Brooklyn, NY - The NYPD Has A Riot Plan For When Satmar Rebbe Passes Away

Brooklyn, NY - The NYPD has prepared a massive mobilization in Brooklyn to brace for crushing throngs and potentially unruly crowds if the beloved 91-year-old grand rebbe of Satmar passes away.

A contentious succession battle between the two sons of the Satmar Grand Rebbe Moses Teitelbaum has split the sect and forced cops to ready themselves for potentially violent clashes.

The clashes could come between supporters of Aaron Teitelbaum, who heads the Satmar faction in upstate Kiryas Joel, and his brother, Zalman, the leader of the Williamsburg, Brooklyn faction. "You would hope nothing happens during this time, but we have to be prepared against an outbreak of fights between the two sides," a police source said. His death would set the stage for one of the largest local funeral processions in recent memory, they said.

In preparing a response, called "Operation Sundown," police will have about 400 cops with barriers ready to pen in the expected crowds and expect to shut down the streets around the main Satmar synagogue on Rodney Street in Williamsburg. In addition to closing Rodney Street, police are prepared to shut down Lee and Bedford avenues.

In Upstate NY They Are Also Preparing.


Chief of Woodbury Police Department recalls last rebbe funeral.

Back then, Bob Kwiatkowski was a Woodbury patrolman. Neighboring Monroe had fewer than 15,000 people, and only a small percentage of them lived in the recently incorporated Chasidic settlement known as Kiryas Joel.
But when the revered leader of the Satmar Hasidic sect, Joel Teitelbaum, died in 1979, Kwiatkowski and others would soon learn the magnitude of grief his passing could command.
As many as 100,000 mourners descended upon an unsuspecting Orange County to attend the funeral and burial of the Satmar grand rebbe.
"I remember they gridlocked Route 17," says Kwiatkowski, today the chief of the Woodbury department. "Nothing moved. They parked cars in the driving lanes and walked into Kiryas Joel."

This time around, police know what to expect. They've been planning for months how to handle the traffic that will pour into the area.
Kwiatkowski, a veteran of one rebbe funeral, vows, "This is going to be a well-coordinated response."